I have thought about this situation and I will even go so far as to say leaving loaded firearms in open sight with small children around is just plain irresponsible. Sure, one child might understand that they are not to touch a gun, but what about visiting children? Something is wrong if someone feels the need to have a loaded firearm within immediate reach in their home at all times. That means there is a bad situation that needs to be taken care of. I have several firearms, both rifles and handguns, and they are kept in a safe.

How long will it be before your child, or one of his friends, can reach the top of the ‘fridge after climbing atop a chair he moved to it? How long will it be before your wife, preoccupied with groceries, a phone call, or something else, moves the gun to the counter just for a minute and forgets about it? Add your own unsual circumstance here.

Keeping a gun safe when everything is 'normal' isn't the job. It's keeping it safe even when things go out of routine that's the job

__________________

"Sometimes I pretend to be normal, but it's boring and I go back to being me.""You might as well be yourself, people won’t like you anyway.""Tres verbo dictom"

My wife keeps her xd9 on top of the fridge in the kitchen in plain sight. We have a 5 year old boy who I have extensively explained that "mom and dads guns are not toys"!!!!!!!! And explained the difference between our guns and his and also showed him what they are capable of. With that being said. He has no interest in any of them whatsoever and I know he isn't going to touch them at all. I told my wife that she needs to put put it out of sight!!! But yet it remains up there. Am I wrong for wanting her to keep it out of sight? Personally don't believe I am. Just put it somewhere that is fairly easy to get too if the need arises.

No you are not wrong and your wife is being negligent. You can explain something to a 5 year old until you are blue in the face but he is incapable of being rational, he is 5! Do not be lulled by your son's seeming inattentiveness to the gun, children are spontaneous and you and your wife are playing with fire. BTW, it is a felony in many states to leave a loaded gun in a place where it is accessable to a minor. If, God forbid, something were to happen you would not only have to deal with the emotional consequences, you would find yourself with a load of legal problems as well. If your wife does not cooperate, put her gun in a safe and do not allow her to retrieve it until she wises up.

__________________
"The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals.... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789)

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." - George Washington

On top of the fridge in plain sight? How short is the fridge & how tall is your 5 yo? My wife is 5'6" and if I want to hide something, I can just put in "plain sight' on the fridge. She'll never see it.
Seriously though, It would be safer for all concerned, if she just carried it if she needs it close at hand. Barring that, one of those quick access safes would do the trick. Whatever is decided, it can't just be lying around with crumb crunchers running around.

__________________Cheers,
GregMSgt, USAF, RetiredNRA Life MemberThe hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see. - Ayn Rand

If she needs it out and open, get her a 20 guage shotty with a 20" barrel; the kid couldn't get himself both in front of the barrel and on the trigger (no guarantees on furniture).

I don't have kids, happily.

The child doesn't need to see the gun on top of the fridge. They sometimes climb up there just for the heck of it....and because they can.

As for the shotgun, I wouldn't want to walk into a room to discover a 5 year old pointing a shotgun at me. Even if he can't be at both ends of a shotgun, there may be someone else at the end of that shotgun.

I teach my granddaughter to never touch a gun and then when the lesson is over I lock it in the safe.
I find this thread interesting. It has been my experience that most women are careful about their children around the guns and the men seem to think hiding a gun or teaching a child not to touch it is good enough to leave a gun in the open.

__________________Honor Student: School of Hard KnocksTo the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.Quando Omni Flunkus Moritatus

All of my children have been raised around guns, at very young ages they were all taught what guns do (take a kid out and kill a bird or a squirrel and they learn real fast that guns kill), gun safety is taught to them from the time they shot their first bb gun. By age 8 they are taught how to field strip and clean rifles, by age 10 they learn handguns, at age 12 they are enrolled in hunters safety class to be taught gun safety from a professional. Now they are allowed to GO hunting with me, at age 14 they are allowed to carry a rifle and 1 round (in their hand) and after they make their first kill then they are allowed to carry more than 1 round in their rifle and at age 18 they are allowed to carry a handgun also. But at no time are they allowed to handle or use a firearm without supervision, that is rule #1 and it has always been followed. I have 3 children ages 25, 21, and 8 and I have never had an incidence where they have "played" with a gun. If they have a question, they come to me and we address it TOGETHER. They all know guns are tools, very dangerous tools, and are NOT to be handled without me. Most of my guns are in the safe but the house guns are not, those guns are put away out of sight and the kids all know where they are and not to touch them unless they ask. These basic rules and the way I teach the kids are the same rules my dad and my grandfather taught me and there has never been an incident in our family. My thought is that if there is no reason for curiosity then there will be none. Might not be the right way of doing things but it sure does work for us.